Breaking The Habit
by Savage Midnight
Summary: Five years down the line, Max ends an affair that never should have been.


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Title: Breaking The Habit  
**Author:** Savage Midnight  
**Email:** savage_midnight@hotmail.com  
**Website: **See profile.  
**Rating:** PG-13 (for swearing and references to sex)  
**Disclaimer:** The characters Max, Alec and Logan belong to the creators of Dark Angel.  
**Summary:** Five years down the line and Max ends an affair that never should have been.  
**Authors notes: **This is just an idea I had for a stand-alone piece (for now). Feedback would be adored :)

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"It's over."

He turned to look at her, champagne glass grasped firmly in his hand. His brow furrowed in confusion and he cocked his head in bewilderment. "Come again?"

"It's over," Max repeated. "We're done... finished." She braced herself against the doorframe and eyed him warily; watching him watch her. His dark eyes were probing; scruntinising her as she stood, determined and fierce. Whatever he threw at her - insults, threats, punches - she was ready. She was ready for anything.

... except for the sound of his laughter. His chuckle rippled through the apartment; warm and contented, and his eyes sparkled mischieviously as he gazed at her.

"You say that every other week, Max," he replied, bringing the champagne to his lips and sipping lazily.

"It's different this time."

"Do enlighten me," he sighed, tired of the same routine. He hadn't been lying when he said that she did this every other week. The occasional moment came when she'd barge into his apartment and declare that they weren't to see each other anymore, that what they were doing was wrong. But it never lasted. One kiss and she was his all over again, back in his arms... back in his bed. Oh yes, he was definitely used to this routine.

Settling himself comfortably on his couch, he stared across at her, still stood ramrod in his doorway. Downing the rest of his champagne he indicated for her to continue.

"He's asked me to marry him," she breathed, stepping reluctantly into the apartment. "And I said yes."

The candles that were placed around the room in an attempt to create a romantic atmosphere now cast ugly shadows across his face and for a brief second, Max was scared. He was quiet - silent in fact - and Max knew it wasn't a good sign. She could handle him when he was laughing, when he was throwing insults at her, but not when he was silent.

__

Not good, she thought solemnly. _Not good at all_.

"And us?" he questioned tightly.

"There is no us. Not anymore."

Lightening flashed behind him as he shifted on the couch. His dark eyes were blank; his face impassive. Max took a reluctant step forward and rested a hand against the divider that seperated the hallway and the living area. Around her dozens of flames licked their way through the darkness. A champagne bottle sat chilling in an ice-bucket, a crystal flute waiting next to it. The soft notes of a pre-pulse love song flowed into the room and Max was struck with a familiar feeling of awe. He always managed to surprise her. After five years of romantic gestures, it was simple nights like this that reminded her why she stayed; why it was him she longed for, despite loving another man.

But no more. She couldn't afford to lose what it had taken her five years to gain. She was in love with someone else, he knew that. It was unfair to him; to both of them to pretend otherwise, to assume that this wasn't anything more than sex. Great sex. Mind-blowing, earth-shattering sex that took her to new places every night, but sex non-the-less.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" he spoke softly, rising from the couch and placing his champagne flute on the table. Beside hers. "Do you really think you can walk away from this? From us? You can't, Max. You know you can't. You've been trying for five years and not once have you meant it when you say we're over."

"This is _different_," she hissed angrily. "Don't you get it? He's asked me to _marry_ him. This is my chance at a new start and I refuse to throw it away because you're too selfish to accept its over." She stalked towards him, body taut with unleashed rage; strengthened by five years of betrayal, of lies and broken promises. Strengthened by her need to vanquish this man out of her life... for good. "Do you hear me?" she seethed, stood flush against him, her angry eyes glaring up at him with disdain. "We're _over_."

"Do you think marrying the guy will change anything, Max? You can deny it all you want, but we have something. We've had it for _five_ years, and nothing - not a ring, not a wedding, not him - can change that. Remember that, Max. Remember that when he's making love to you on your wedding night. Because you'll never stop thinkin' about me. You'll always be wishing it's me between your legs. _Always_."

His face was mere inches away now, and Max could see the fierceness in his eyes; the determination to keep what he believed belonged to him. 

"You're wrong. I--"

And then he kissed her. Soft lips pressed against her and Max whimpered at the touch. He gripped her forearms, pulling her against him forcefully, his body pressed flush against her own. She opened her mouth to protest but only a moan escaped as his warm tongue slipped between her parted lips. Her knees came close to buckling as he explored the hot cavern of her mouth, his tongue duelling with her own in a heated battle; his kisses white hot and angry. 

For the briefest second, she responded, sliding her tongue against his own. But reality wiggled its way through the lusty haze and she pushed him away from her with a violent shove. Her breath came in short, angry spurts and her chest heaved with adrenaline.

"That's your answer to everything, isn't it?" she breathed furiously. "Sex."

"It was never a problem before, if I remember rightly," he shot back, a feral light dancing in his dark orbs.

"No," she confessed. "Because that's all it was... sex. It was never anything more, and it'll never be anything more."

"Bullshit." She glanced up at him, taking a wary step back as he took a step towards her. "We'd have been over years ago if it was just about the sex," he explained. "But it's not, and you know it's not. I make you feel good, Max. And it scares you. It scares you because it's enticing... forbidden. You think that if you leave him, that if you give us a chance, it won't be as exciting. It won't be as thrilling, because it wouldn't be wrong anymore." 

She was shaking her head now, unable to find the words to deny what he was saying. She took several more steps back as he advanced on her and jumped slightly when she collided with the wall.

He loomed over her, hands placed on each side of the wall beside her head; trapping her indefinitely. He nuzzled her neck, bringing his mouth to her ear and whispering softly, "But you're wrong, Max. It doesn't have to be forbidden to be exciting. I can show you things; things you've never dreamed of. Give you a life he can't."

"I'm happy with this one," she argued, gaining control of her voice box again. She peered up at him, awaiting the reply she knew would come. He didn't disappoint.

"Are you?" he questioned, and she nodded meekly. "Tell me, Max... will you be happy living your life as Mrs. Logan Cale? Making love to him when you've got my name on your lips?"

Silence.

"Will you be happy when you have to explain to Logan why you can't have his children? Why there's a definite risk it'll be born abnormal due to your DNA differences? Is it me, or is there definite happiness factor missing from this scenario?"

"I--"

"--love him. I got that part already. But I can give you so much more, Max. If you'd just give us a chance."

"I gave us a chance," she hissed. "I gave us five years, for God's sake!"

"So why do you come back? Why, if you love him so much, do you continue to come here?"

"Sex," she replied bluntly. "We both know that I can't be with Logan like that... not properly. I'd hurt him. Hell, I'd probably kill him. But that doesn't mean I don't love him."

He shook his head sadly and turned away from her; pacing the apartment silently.

"You're a liar, Max," he declared quietly. "You're lying to me, to Logan... to yourself." He glanced at her, his shoulders slumped; his dark eyes mournful. "Leave him, Max. Leave him and give me a chance." 

He was begging. God, he was begging.

A wave of guilt hit her but Max pushed it aside. Straightening her shoulders, she looked up at him; eyes cold and hard. "I don't love you," she announced. "I never did, and I never will. Remember that." She turned away from him then; ignoring the flash of anguish in his eyes, oblivious as he broke before her. She headed for the door, her decision final and her fate sealed. She headed out into the hallway, and with a final goodbye, she was gone.

"Goodbye, Alec."


End file.
